Iraqi Kurds vote in dual election

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Women were frisked before entering a polling station in Sulaimaniya, Iraq, Saturday.

Iraqi Kurds are voting in a double election to choose a new parliament and president for their autonomous region in the north of Iraq, reports BBC.
Some 20,000 troops have been stationed at polling stations, with 2.5 million people are registered to vote.
Incumbent President Masood Barzani and the ruling parliamentary coalition are both expected to win re-election.
But Kurdistan's two main parties - the KDP and PUK - are fighting off a challenge from reformists.
President Barzani heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of the two big Kurdish parties, who were once rivals, but now partners in the ruling coalition.
There are four other candidates, but none is likely to come close.
It is the first time the president of Kurdistan is being elected directly by popular vote.
Party faithfulls attend a rally in support of the "Change list" led by Nusherwan Mustafa, a former number two in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, on July 22, 2009
In the parliamentary stakes, the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, are fielding a joint list for the 100 seats being contested. Another 11 seats are reserved for minorities.
While the coalition is generally expected to win, the two parties' dominance is facing a serious new challenge from the Change movement, led by Noshirwan Mustafa.
The movement has shaken the establishment with its demand for an end to corruption and elitism, and seems to have strong support particularly in the eastern areas, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Kurdistan.
Some of its more optimistic supporters believe it could win enough seats to team up with Islamists and leftists to deny the two big parties a majority.
While that seems unlikely, the movement is certainly expected to do well enough to form a vocal opposition in parliament for the first time, our correspondent says.
Another report adds: Iraqi Kurdistan, long considered a bastion of stability and democracy in a country ravaged by violence, is also little more than an autocratic domain of two governing parties with a virtually unbreakable grip on power and patronage that few expect the election to loosen.
"The two parties monopolize everything," said Arsalan Darwish, the director. The play, "I Am Not One of You," depicted a victorious guerrilla leader who became an oppressive ruler.
"They have even co-opted the fruits of this nation's struggle," he added, referring to the Kurds' often bloody struggle for rights and self-rule in Iraq and neighboring Iran, Syria and Turkey.
The play is only one sign of a growing restlessness and hunger for political change, despite the security and investments that have made the Kurdish areas the most prosperous in Iraq, with manicured parks and shopping malls where even foreigners can walk openly and safely.
A coalition called Gorran, which means "change" in Kurdish, is working to unseat the two governing parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in a boisterous, if improbable, election campaign that has led to scuffles in the streets. A recent rally, where car horns honked and Gorran supporters waved dark blue flags depicting their movement's emblem, was broken up by the police after it descended into fistfights with supporters of the governing parties.
The coalition is led by Nawshirwan Mustafa, 65, a former mountain rebel against Saddam Hussein who was among the founders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Now, he says, his former comrades have been corrupted by power and have betrayed the Kurdish cause. "There is a form of totalitarianism in our system," he said in a recent interview. "We believe the time is ripe to put our house in order."
His work is attracting both a following and a fierce backlash from the governing parties, which call him an opportunist and a charlatan. Still, there is doubt whether Gorran or any other challenger will pick up enough seats in the local Parliament to effect change.
Though deadly enemies for years, the parties are participating in the elections as one coalition, a reflection of the "strategic agreement" that has enabled them to divide the region's government and economic resources 50-50. They command the region's armed forces and intelligence services. They own business conglomerates.
Most important, they control jobs, salaries and patronage. Thus, the consensus among Kurds is that the only way to get ahead is to support the parties.
The parties' leaders encourage the thought, saying that only they can safeguard the gains made by Kurds, a distinct ethnic group accounting for almost 20 percent of Iraq's population. And indeed the achievement is substantial.